Wales boss Gary Speed has defended Rob Earnshaw after he missed the chance to grab Wales a draw against England last night.

Incredibly, Earnshaw spooned over an open goal from six yards 15 minutes from the end of the 1-0 defeat against England.

It left Speed with his head in his hands, reflecting on what might have been, but determined not to let Earnshaw carry the can for an agonising defeat.

"I thought he was going to score," said Speed.

"If you’d want one person in that position it would be Earnie.

"But he’s mentally strong and will get over that.

"It was one of those things. He’s Wales through and through, will always turn up and play, and is a fantastic player to have in the squad.

"I thought it was in when it dropped with him, but I’m more proud with the way Wales played and took it to them."

Speed should be applauded for his game-plan, even though he opted not to put danger-man Gareth Bale in direct opposition to Chris Smalling, who was winning only his second cap.

He did think about pushing Bale into a more orthodox attacking role as England wilted near the end, but ultimately left his team to try and shrug off their massive disappointment, which they were unable to do.

Wales can take heart though.

Aaron Ramsey controlled midfield for the final half hour and when Craig Bellamy returns from suspension, Wales will have a forward line capable of causing problems to the sternest of defences.

They made a mockery of a gap of over 100 places in the FIFA rankings, leaving Speed a proud man.

"We’d done a lot of work on our shape," he said.

"We knew we’d come under pressure against a top team with top players.

"There’s not a lot we could have done with the goal, but we limited them to very few chances.

"The way we passed it and opened them up in the second half was very good. We’ll take a lot of positives from this for the future."

And Speed does not believe England need to be too hard on themselves either as they chase the point required to seal a place at Euro 2012.

"I think they will do well," he said.

"They caused us problems; Rooney’s movement and Ashley Young was fantastic again tonight. They’ll trouble anyone. They’ll do well.

"But I was looking at my team. We’ve had false dawns before and we can’t afford to have another.

"We have to make the most of the players and the potential that we have."